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stp6237 (Offline)
  #16 4/11/20 9:13 AM
Hi gang, I live in Montgomery County, PA. This is the first hot spot in the state. I am a retired high school science teacher who was driving two separate special needs students for a private transportation company when it first hit. One school on the border of Bucks and Montgomery Counties was closed on its own by the district, but only one specific school, because a doctor who had a practice in Western Montco was tested positive after a trip to Egypt and had at least one child patient who visited the office. This caused several other districts near the office to close all of their schools. The afternoon school was still open so I continued with that run. The company that gave me a run from a local railroad station to take workers to a J & J manufacturing plant near the station. I did that run for several days picking up 8 to 10 people and still did the afternoon school run. By the end of the week, the State closed ALL the schools in the county and issued a voluntary ban on travel. The J & J run stayed open, but two days later the whole state school system was shut down and non-essential work was shut down. With that happening, the J & J run went down to two essential workers for one day and then the plant was shut down for 2 weeks with the idea they would reopen on March 30th. They are still closed. I did go to Lincoln's and Port Royal's openers and was planning to Harrisburg for a special program at the National Civil War Museum on Saturday then hit Port Royal's show that afternoon and the Sunday opener at Williams Grove. Being 72 years old and being from the PA "ground zero" area, my wife and kids "suggested" that I not go. Well I am sure you can figure out who won that argument. By Monday after the Grove date, the state was basically shut down even though, for some reason Gov Wolf said that he did not have the power to stop racing in the state and the local tracks were planning to run. By Wednesday the tracks were also shut. I am sorry for the length of this report, but I felt background was needed. I am not sure everyone and a lot of people outside of Philadelphia area and other large population centers realize the seriousness of this situation. Yes, this is a virus, and yes there are a lot of similarities with the "normal flu." But, we are in unknown territory as how this COVID-19 works, with the "normal flu" science has been able to predict what strain will be dominate and develop a vaccine and treatment for that flu season and yes we still have 1000s of deaths each year. Right now, I will be shocked if we race here in the East before the middle of June, especially this week since Wolf shut the all schools for the rest of year and there a lot of people out of work and there are businesses that are in danger of failing. My buddies from Reading and I are looking to head to Iowa for the Indy car race on Friday, July 17 and hit Knoxville on Saturday, July 18 for tracks we have never been to. We are have our tickets for the Indy 500 and hope to hit Gas City the Friday before the 500 along with Lincoln Park as usual except it will be in August not May. I am lucky as my wife is still working as a companion for a woman in a health care facility and gets checked everyday for signs of COVID-19 and she only allows me to do house work and yard work while she does all of the shopping. I have had contact with my kids and grandkids through zoom and also attended some Civil War Round Tables meeting with zoom. Again, sorry for the length, but as we are saying here in PA, "Take care and be safe" I will see you at the races!
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